FCP X: Create Subclips Using Keywords

This article was suggested by a question from a reader. He was in the middle of logging a large interview project using keywords in Final Cut Pro X. He wondered if it was possible to use the keywords they created to generate subclips of just the portions of interviews they wanted to use.

The answer is yes and the method is surprisingly easy. Here’s how.

BACKGROUND

Two of the major organizational features of Final Cut Pro X are ratings and keywords. Ratings are a simple way to flag a clip as a Favorite or Rejected. Keywords provide greater variety in assigning attributes to a clip, as well as providing more complex searches.

The key thing you need to know is that you can assign ratings and keywords to portions of a clip, as well as entire clips.

NOTE: Here’s an article on how to use Ratings in Final Cut Pro X.

CREATE A KEYWORD

Here are three NASA clips that we’ll use for our example today. That blue bar you see across the top of each clip indicates that at least one keyword is assigned to the entire length of each clip. In this example, the keyword NASA Video was assigned to the entire clip when I imported it.

Here’s a fast way to find out what keywords are associated with each clip:

• Turn skimming on (type S)
• Choose View > Show Skimmer Info (or type Control+Y)
• Skim across a clip. The top line of the small display is the file name, the next lines display keywords and the bottom line is the timecode at the position of the skimmer

While this step is not required, it can often be useful to drag the small slider in the lower right corner of the Browser to reveal more thumbnails showing the contents a clip.

Here, for example, I expanded the display of the NASA Solar Flare clip to see that it contains three stars in the same clip: a red star, a yellow star and a blue star.

And, as before, the blue analysis bar runs across the entire clip.

Using the skimmer, or the playhead, I marked a range containing just the red sun clip by setting an In at the beginning of the shot and an Out at the end of the shot.

With that range selected, click the Key icon in the Toolbar (shortcut Cmd + K) to display the Keyword entry dialog.

In this dialog, I entered a new keyword “Red Star,” then pressed Enter to accept the entry.

NOTE: Yes, keywords can be more than one word; though I tend to keep them short.

I then repeated this process of marking a range for the yellow star and the blue star; assigning each a keyword.

If you are only assigning one keyword at a time, you’ll see a quick animation, when you press the Enter key, of the keyword flying back into the clip. This animation does not exist when you assign multiple keywords at once.

Although we have multiple keywords assigned to the clip, the display of the blue bar does not change. The blue bar illustrates which part(s) of the clip have keywords assigned, in this case we have one keyword (“NASA Video”) for the entire clip, and three separate keywords for different portions of the clip.

If I remove the NASA Video keyword from the clip, notice that the blue bar has breaks in it, indicating that it contains keyword ranges. Only that portion of a clip that contains at least one keyword has a blue bar in it.

USING KEYWORDS TO SELECT CLIPS

When we go back to the Library List, on the left, and twirl down the triangle next to the Event name, we see a list of all the keywords assigned to all the clips in that Event. These names are called “Keyword Collections.” There is no technical limit to the number of keywords you can create. Each keyword automatically creates a Keyword Collection for that event.

Keyword collections allows us to quickly select and see all the clips, or clip ranges, to which that keyword was assigned.

Here, the NASA Video keyword is highlighted, so all clips containing the NASA Video keyword are displayed in the Browser.

But, when we click Yellow star in the Library List, only that portion of the NASA Solar Flare clip that was marked when we created the Yellow star keyword is displayed.

In other words, when we assign keywords to a range within a clip, we can instantly display all the ranges within all the clips that contain that keyword, by clicking it in the Library List.

This is a very fast and easy way to select just the portions of the clips you need, without having a build a special timeline or library to do so.

NOTE: You can also use the keyword ranges when you need to put a portion of a clip in a drop zone.

LIMITATIONS OF KEYWORDS

Keywords are, generally very flexible, but do have some limitations. These include:

• You can’t search for keywords across multiple libraries, only one library at a time.
• Keywords are displayed by Event. While you can search for keywords across all Events in a Library, Keyword Collections only display clips in a single Event.
• While there is no technical limit to the number of keywords you can create, practically, don’t use more than 30 keywords per library if you plan to use keyword search for multiple keywords.

SUMMARY

While I don’t use keywords for small projects, I find them very useful to manage media as my projects get bigger.

EXTRA CREDIT

• Here’s a video that shows how to use keywords
• Here’s an article that goes into keywords in more detail
• Here’s an article that explains how to copy and paste keywords

 

---

Bookmark the permalink.